My wife is trying to keep our garden organic, what kind of fertilizer do you all use to keep it organic?

Get you some Zoo Poo.

I used a compost from living earth but seems like I need some kind of boost. I used to use miracle grow and had good production but now my plants don’t produce as much and are a little on the yellow side. I feel they need more nitrogen.

I have been using crushed egg shells and banana peels liquid on the cucs, tomatoes, peppers seems to be doing good.

Is there anything y'all do to increase harvest volume with pepper plants? We just got 2 jalepeno, a poblano and a bell pepper put in the garden. Needing to know if y'all have any tricks to getting a better harvest. I've seen some videos saying that cutting the top part off and the leaves towards the bottom helps.

I'm going to increase my fertilizing routine this year to increase my peppery harvests. More nitrogen early to get good vegetative growth and them more of a bloom booster type once the flowers really start to set. I'm also using more bone meal and fish fertilizer too. There is debate about topping the plants. I does encourage them to be more bushy in my experience, but not sure if it ups total yield. I have one Poblano that got topped by a bug or something, so I'll keep better track of how its yield compares to the others of the same type. I also have started to focus on selecting varieties that are known for high yields. Bell peppers are not.

I added some 13-13-13 into the garden bed while mixing the soil, but that's about it. Trust me I know bell peppers are not high yield plants but per my better half, we had to put at least one in there

A trick I learned for tomatoes from my grandfather works on peppers too. Go out and shake them a little every day. If you get a branch with no/little flowers, break it without breaking it off. The plant will "try" to reproduce more prolifically.

I'm a fan of topping them. I came upon it by accident years ago when I accidentally crushed a habanero plant. It was about a foot tall and I crushed it to the ground. I basically just trimmed it to the ground and just waited to see what happened. It came back gang busters and put off a ton of shoots and was my best producing plant that year so now I do it to all of them when they have 3 sets of true leaves.

As far as bells go. I've never had great production with store bought varieties. If you start via seeds try King Arthur. It produces great for me.

I need some ideas on what to plant to fill the rest of this raised bed with. I got two mammoth japs, poblano and a bell pepper. Wife wants to plant carrots but I read it's too late to start those. I haven't figured out how to post a picture here but if someone wants to PM their # I'll send you the picture so y'all can get an idea of what surface area I have left. We don't like red tomatoes but do enjoy green salsa (are tomatillos worth it?)

Yeah, too late on carrots I think. I've only tried tomatillos a couple of times and apparently don't have those figured out yet. How about a golden cherry tomato, or a cucumber? Maybe some cilantro to go in your salsa, or other herbs you like to cook with. I've learned some stuff by just browsing home depot and buying something on a whim too. Just brainstorming.
ETA - if you want to stick with peppers to make salsa with then maybe serrano or cayenne peppers.

I've been meaning to try and grow tomatillos and never do. Feed store had some nice tomatillo plants a week or so ago and I didn't buy one. Like Snake mentioned there are lots of options. See if the box store or feed store has anything that strikes your fancy. Cukes, squash, okra, eggplant and so on.

There is a thread at the top in the test forum that explains how to post pics. If you want to do some testing in there I can help you learn how to post pics.

https://texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/forums/24/1/test-help-forum

Similar to my experience posted above. I selectively break (not off) branches.



Carrots from seed would be half way done by now, radishes and lettuce too. I planted onions when I used to plant carrots (early February) and they're over a foot tall.

Potatoes are easy and can be grown nearly all year in TX.

Maybe I'll be the guinea pig this year for tomatillos. I'm going drive around tomorrow and see if I can find two (read you have to get two so they can cross pollinate)

Yeah you will need 2 for sure to cross. I've heard of people planting 2 plants in the same bucket or garden hole with good results. I might check the feed store tomorrow and join the tomatillo train with you if they have any. I'd have to grow them in pots and see how it goes.

Well Derek little update for you. I went to 3 different feed stores and 2 different nurseries. Last nursery told me that they've been trying to get their hands on some but no one has them. Ended up with a little Italian and another poblano

Topped this Serrano Sunday. I’m not the best picture taker and I should have gotten a before pic, but you can already see the nodes going crazy.

what would yall, "derek" recommend to put on a black gumbo garden plot to loosen the soil? ive been putting compost on it every year for 18 yrs and by winter, early spring its like i havent done anything. i think i need to add some kinda other soil but not sure what. plot is app. 25' x 50' located near forney. thanks.

Let me tell you a story about a tomato plant... Last fall I had a volunteer tomato sprout in a spot where I hadn't grown anything that year and was between two of my tomato beds. I left it there to see what it would do. It must be something with some vigor to sprout after the hot dry summer we had. It could be anything. It was close to where we had purple cherokee, celebrity, and sweet 100. It grew slowly into the winter but kept on being there since we had a pretty mild winter. Up until the big freeze, that is. When I was getting things ready for the cold snap, I decided to just dig up the tomato and put it into a pot and set it in the garage with some of my other plants. It was in the cold garage for a week or more while the weather warmed up. It wasn't a very happy plant, but kept on being there. I kept in the sun when I could and then moved it into my little green house in about Feb. You can see it in the picture I posed back on 2-15. It really started to thrive and was well ready to go back into the ground when we put in the rest of the tomato seedlings. I still had no idea what kind of tomato this was. Since it had several months of age ahead of my other seedlings it took oof once I put back where it sprouted. It has turned it a monster of a plant, already topping the height of my fence. My wife decided it was a girl and has now named it Audrey. Audrey has now revealed what she has in store for us. She is a cherry tomato and is already busting out with with blooms and clusters of fruit!

Onions!

I wouldn't over think it too much, I'm basically the same area as you and farmers here have been tilling in organic matter for the past few centuries and it's still the same black garbage gumbo clay. How is your garden doing, is it producing to your liking? That's first. If yes, then keep rocking on. If no you might go through the season and get a soil test next winter/spring, I'm betting you're producing well and soil structure sucks, it is what it is. Rock on you're good

Awesome! Seeing what pops up overwinter is always a nice hidden treasure imo. Naming plants is an extra bonus/illness and I love it lol!

LFG Gas! Onions are on point and looking great! Those 1015Y's?

1015Y Texas Super Sweet

thanks. kinda what i thought.